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HTPC Upgrade?

T

tcraig_4096

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
211
We use my wife's PC for our current HTPC.

Pentium 4 Northwood @ 3.4 Ghz
Nvidia 6800GT (AGP)
1GB RAM
400W Coolermaster PSU
780p 32" Aquos
80GB 7200RPM WD HDD
WinXP

Wait! Before you start laughing, let me say a few things about what we want in an HTPC.

-We don't care much if it is loud, we got other stuff (namely aquariums, fridges, and furnace) that are already louder when we watch movies.
-It still needs to be able to play moderate games (Hellgate London, Spore, LoTRO).
-It still runs plenty quick enough, as I keep her OS tweaked and system pretty cleaned out of junk software.

I was wondering about replacing it with A Llano (A4-3400 probably). I'd put in a ~128 SSD and use the same case, DVD drive, PSU. We are not in the market for a new TV/monitor at this time, nor do I want to buy a Windows 7 or a new video card. Of course I would not still be using the AGP 6800GT.

My questions are:

1- Would it be a significant upgrade or downgrade in performance?
2- Would it be able to run XP and her games okay?
 
If it runs plenty fast enough and you plan on keeping XP is it worth upgrading at all?

If you hang on until Trinity comes out (the refresh of LLano) should be out midway this year. AMD says it will be 25% faster in CPU and 50% faster GPU to current Llano. Also if you hold off Windows 8 will come out probably at the end of the year. AN SSD also does make a vast diference in boot times/responsiveness.
....But that is if you plan on doing more with your HTPC. If the current one does everything you need then there's little point changing it. Unless you are watching blu ray rips or playing demanding games a Pentium 4 and an old video card, despite being kind of slow, is probably all you need.
 
I just bought a a6-3500 and an asus f1a75-i deluxe and couldn't be happier with it. Running win7 on a ocz vertex 1 and it's plenty fast. I love the mini-itx form factor, I wish I could find a smaller case, if I could just find one that doesn't include space for a cd-rom(don't need) it'd be the perfect.

I'm not a fan of the stock hsf though, get something better. I actually replaced mine with the stock hsf that came with my 965be and it cut idle temps quite a bit over the stock llano heatsink.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I guess I will wait a bit more see what the Llano update looks like, and get a WIN7 for it. Maybe a new TV too. XXfingers.
 
if you have gone this long with a p4 and 6800GT, the current llano's would be a huge upgrade over that thing. better power usage and hardware acceleration on top of that.
 
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